Bolivia Bound

Hola de YACUIBA!!!!

That’s right, I’m now in Yacuiba! And it rocks! Although I imagine that your first question is, what the heck is Yacuiba? Well, Yacuiba is another city in Bolivia, in the far south about 10 minutes from Argentina. So to answer dad’s question about where else missionaries go that isn’t the actual city of Santa Cruz, I will explain... Our mission is the south half of the department of Santa Cruz (departments here are like states), and then the department of Tarija. So, there are missionaries in the city of Santa Cruz, then in a city called Porto Suarez in the department of Santa Cruz, then four cities, Bermejo, Villamontes, Yacuiba, and Tarija, in the department of Tarija. And of all these cities, the options for hermanas are some parts of Santa Cruz, and then Bermejo, Yacuiba, and Tarija. And now I’m in Tarija!

So, how did this happen? As I mentioned last week, Hermana Lopez has been having kind of a rough time, particularly emotionally. Well, she’s also been having a rough time with her health because she’s been throwing up on a pretty consistent basis for almost her entire mission. We’ve gone to the hospital a few times, but they haven’t really found much. But this week, it got a lot worse, and she had to rest a lot, so we weren’t really going out to work. But at the same time, Hermanas Black and Cladera, who are in Yacuiba, had to come to Santa Cruz because Hermana Cladera got really sick and there basically aren’t hospitals in Yacuiba. So after a few days, Presidente Willard decided that the best option would be to leave Hermana Lopez and Hermana Cladera in Braniff (my area) together, and send me and Hermana Black back to Yacuiba. We flew here Thursday afternoon (it’s like an hour flight in a TINY plane for 20 people) and the plan was that I would just be here until today, Monday. But it looks like I’ll actually be here until transfers this Wednesday. Not too sure how it’s all going to work out since I have to fly back to Braniff for all my stuff and then from there, go to my new area if I have a new area, but hey... we’ll get it all figured out.

It was pretty sad to leave Braniff and to know this might be goodbye to Braniff forever, and it was especially sad to know that I might not be companions with Hermana Lopez anymore depending on what happens with transfers this Wednesday, but I have to say that I LOVE Yacuiba. It’s SUPER hot here, which is not fun, but it’s a city of 100,000 people compared to Santa Cruz, which is 3 million. So it’s a lot more tranquil and clean, and it’s SO pretty. We’re surrounded on all sides by a hilly jungle, and just crossing into it a little bit we reach Argentina. The city is really interesting because it’s the first time I’ve REALLY seen the poverty of Bolivia. I thought I saw poverty in Santa Cruz, but it was nothing compared to here. The city is divided in two parts, the rich part, and "la playa" (the beach), which is where all the poor people live, and it is SUPER humble. (It’s called la playa because when it rains hard here, it floods hard core, like water up to the waist, but Yacuiba is a hill so all the water floods la playa and sometimes destroys houses there and things like that.) Anyway, so Hermana Black and I are in a branch here and working a ton with reactivations and part member families. In these four days here, we’ve already committed 3 people to baptism for the end of the month and we’ve got another three or four who are ready, but just need to accept baptism dates. Sweet! We’re also working a LOT with menos activos. There are a TON in La Playa, like whole neighborhoods of inactive members, and we’re going house by house activating them. The branch really lacks priesthood, but I LOVE the enthusiasm of the leaders. They go out every Sunday, all of them together with the missionaries, for three hours to visit less actives, and these less actives are so touched by the visit that they almost always come back to church, right away. I love it here. There’s a ton of work to do and a lot of good things happening, and it’s way fun to be companions with Hermana Black. She’s the hermana with the most time in the mission, and she’s also an hermana capacitadora, so she’s been teaching me a lot about what I should be doing with this assignment. She’s also a ton of fun and super hilarious, so it’s great. I miss Hermana Lopez and I’ll be super happy to see her again (and especially to be her companion again if that’s the Lord’s plan) but I’m going to be way sad to leave Yacuiba. As I say like a million times a day to Hermana Black, "Yacuiba es lo MAXIMO!!!" (Yacuiba is the BEST!!!!!!!!)

Also, something sweet was that one of my old investigators, Omar and Noelia, moved from my area to Yacuiba! So I got to talk to Noelia today. She is now living with her sister, who is actually a less-active member! It just goes to show that the Lord always has a plan and is always preparing His children. Maybe they weren’t ready to get baptized in Braniff with me, but now they’re in a great place, listening to the missionaries again, and I know they’ll get baptized. They were always really special for me, so this was one of the tender mercies of the Lord to be able to see them again. :)

But no matter what we’re doing or who our companion is or where we are, the mission is the best. I love it so much and I’m SO grateful to be here. I love that I can see myself changing every day and growing closer to the Savior. I’ve already seen a lot of miracles with investigators and especially with Hermana Lopez these past weeks, and I love it!!!

Love you all!!!

Hermana Chelsie Faulk